When most players in the industry are trying to cut down on costs by scaling down operations and cutting down on staff due to the prevailing bear market, Binance is expanding, and expanding fast. This might seem a strange move, but for a company like Binance which is all in on crypto, this is the perfect time to expand and establish itself as a recognizable brand in this new space. Recently, it announced a platform to buy crypto with fiat, Binance Jersey. The company also announced the support for the purchase of crypto with Mastercard and Visa credit and debit card. These came as a surprise since the Malta-based Binance was a crypto-to-crypto exchange until now. The company already holds the title of the largest exchange by volume, this ‘fiat ramp’ as the CEO was quoted, will further help Binance grow in terms of volume further.
Credit and debit card purchase
The most preferred form of online payment for sales is card transactions. This is precisely the reason Binance is eager to include this option for buying crypto in its platform. According to the Binance website, the new feature will have three advantages: fast, low fees and convenient. It will only take about 10-30 mins for the cryptocurrency to reach your wallet. This kind of speed is impressive. The fees also seem reasonable, only 3.5% per transaction or 10 USD or whichever is higher. It is also convenient. Now it’s as simple as buying groceries from Amazon. Binance is partnering with Simplex to make this possible. Simplex takes care of the banking part of the card transactions. Binance is not the first company to offer this kind of service. Recently, Coinbase added Paypal for payment transactions.
Binance Jersey
Recently, Binance launched Binance Jersey – a FIAT-to-crypto currency exchange which allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) for British Pound and Euro, essentially expanding into the European markets. Expansion into Europe is a great opportunity for Binance as Europe represents 3.66 percentage of crypto trade and represents more than 20 percent of global GDP. This was mainly due to the lack of fiat to crypto exchanges, until now, even Binance didn’t have that option. In the coming year alone, the company plans to expand on this idea of fiat ramp aggressively by opening 10 new such exchanges in 5 continents. The company is keen on offering its services to institutions. Since most of the traditional market is fiat, such initiatives will help them achieve this goal. According to company sources, the demand for Binance Jersey is strong from its week one itself.
Decentralized banking
Founder bank, if approved, will be the first in the world to be a community-operated decentralized bank, and recently Binance has acquired 5 percent stake in the bank. Binance had to pay 133 million Euro at a pre-investment valuation to buy those shares. The company is one among many who are supporting the new project based out of Malta. The bank is still awaiting approval from the EU state’s government in order to officially start operation of its business. Founders Bank is envisioned to have systems based on blockchain technology and partner with Neufund, a fundraising platform, in the issuance of its own “legally-binding” equity tokens.
The first name that comes to mind when somebody wants to enter crypto is Coinbase. Binance wants to change that and it is no joke. The company is not letting any stone unturned, from exchange to decentralized banks, they are all in. For the industry as a whole, this is good. More competition means more innovation. Binance has one more advantage compared to Coinbase, they support Ripple which will draw more customers to its platform. The aggressive expansion coupled with the bear market which is eating up the competition will solidify Binance’s position as an established brand in the crypto world.
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